Do What You Love and Starve?

By Marty Nemko

If you are a star—very bright, talented, motivated, and
personable and you have a passion, even if it’s in a
competitive field, sure, go for it.

This article is for everyone else.

Based on the 2,700 clients I’ve worked with over the past
two decades, the hundreds of callers to my career-centric radio
show, and my countless other conversations with people about their
careers, I’ve come to the conclusion that we’ve been
sold a bill of goods when we’re told to “Follow your
passion, “ or “Do what you love and the money will
follow.” Fact is, if you do what you love, you’ll
probably starve.

Yes, some people do what they love and the money follows. But
millions of people have followed their passion and still
haven’t earned enough to even pay back their student loans,
let alone make even a bare middle-class living doing what they
love.

The problem is that too many people crave the same few careers,
for example, the arts, environmental, and non-profit work.
Employers in these fields get dozens if not hundreds of
applications for each job. So, you have to be a star or extremely
well connected to get the job.

In other cases, salaries tend to be low or non-existent. Do what
you love and volunteer work may well follow.

The irony is that the small percentage of people who do make a
living in “do-what-you-love,”
“follow-your-passion” careers, are, on average, no
happier than people in less sexy jobs. Here’s why. Plenty of
“cool careers” sound better than they turn out to be.
Actors, for example, spend very little time acting. They spend most
of their time trying out, sitting around waiting for their turn at
rehearsals or on movie shoots, etc.

More important, not only do salaries in “cool”
careers tend to be low, employers in those fields know they can get
away with treating their employees shabbily because zillions of
other capable people are panting for the opportunity to work 60
hours a week for $27,521 (with no benefits) rarely getting praise
in exchange for the good feeling of knowing they’re playing
an infinitesimal role in saving the spotted owl or whatever, even
though they may never get closer to an owl than to a pile of
accounts receivable statements.

Other people’s passion is status. So, for example, they
endure years of boring law school and accumulate boatloads of
student debt for the privilege of slaving under a
2,000-billable-hour quota for the law firm of Dewey, Cheatham, and
Howe, with a futon in their office so they can sneak in a few zzzs
in the middle of the all-nighters they pull to boost the chances of
another lawyer’s corporate client giving money to their
corporate client.

Other status seekers prostitute themselves to climb the
corporate ladder. They work 60+-hour workweeks and kiss up to their
bosses, smilingly willing to uproot themselves and their families
for a few years in whatever God-forsaken place the Company wants to
dump them. They endure two years of impractical arcana and take on
a house-full of debt in graduate school so they can put those three
letters, M,B,A, on their resume. And for what? So they may finally
get a title of director or vice president, and after their 12-hour
cover-their-butt workday, be one of the many execs who collapse on
their sofa, get blitzed, and stare at their oversized living room
in their oversized neighborhood wondering, “Is that all there
is?”

In contrast, if your job is mundane, for example, marketing
manager for the Western Widget Company, the employer knows there
aren’t hundreds of competent people champing at the bit for
your job. So, to keep you, the employer is more likely to offer
decent working conditions, reasonable work hours, kind treatment,
opportunities for learning, and pay you well. Those are the things
that—much more than being in a “cool” career--
lead to career contentment.

You say you want status? Unless you’re a true star
(brilliant, driven, great personality, or have great connections),
give it up. Status is often the enemy of success.
You’re more likely to find career contentment in a
not-high-status career. In my mind, someone who’s an
honorable assistant manager for the Western Widget Co. is more
worthy of respect than many lawyers, investment bankers, and
business development VPs I know. If someone thinks less of you
because you’re job isn’t high-status, they don’t
deserve to be your friend.

Advice I’d Give My Child

If you’re entrepreneurial, I recommend starting your own
business. Yes, I know, only 20 percent of new businesses are still
in business after five years, but you can beat the odds. Just
remember is this one rule: Don't innovate.
Replicate. Copy a successful simple business.

Innovations are too risky: Your product might not work, may not
be popular with the public, or a competitor could beat you to
market. Why be a guinea pig? Unless you have deep pockets or are
truly brilliant, the risks are too great. Many people have ended up
in poverty because of their innovations. Even Tivo, a wonderful new
product lost hundreds of millions of dollars in the first few
years. Last I checked, you don’t have oodles of money to
lose. Leave the innovations to corporations or the independently
wealthy.

Where to find a business to copy? Drive around to find a simple
business at which customers are lined up out the door. For example,
see a successful burrito shop or espresso cart? Open a similar one
in a similar neighborhood. Your chances of success will be a
helluva lot higher than 20%. You will find happiness in providing
an in-demand product at a fair price. Confine your urge to innovate
to your hobbies.

Another approach to finding a good business is to pick a grungy
one, for example, automatic transmission repair or mobile home park
maintenance. Few top-notch people go into such businesses, so if
you do it competently, you’ll probably make good maybe great
money. And you’ll feel better about your work, having people
coming to you and thanking you, and owning your own business rather
than slaving away for some boss ever fearing your job will be
downsized or shipped to India.

You say you don’t have the knowledge to run such a
business? No problem. For example, I don’t know a thing about
transmissions, but if I wanted to open a transmission shop,
I’d find the best transmission mechanic, pay him well and
hire a consultant who is the owner of a successful transmission
shop located far enough from my store that he wouldn’t fear
my competition. The two of them would teach me how to set up my
business. Then, I’d spend my time building relationships with
car repair shop owners so I’d get their referral
business.

If starting a business from scratch seems too scary, consider a
franchise. According to Robert Bond, author of Bond’s
Franchise Guide, some of the best include Jani-King commercial
cleaning and Aussie Pet Mobile, a grooming service. When you find a
franchise that sounds appealing, be sure to speak with at least 10
of the franchise’s franchisees at random before signing on
the dotted line.